I’m all for teaching propaganda; that is, teaching our kids how to recognize propaganda when they see it.
We were taught in school how to detect propaganda during the 1950s and 60s, but I’m not sure about today. I hope so. Schools taught us to recognize propaganda because of the communist threat. You know, the guys that were supposed to be under every bed in America, which was a bit of propaganda in itself. What we learned, however, was the ability to judge objectively messages manufactured for public consumption.
The earliest lesson in propaganda I remember was not in school but in a Walt Disney cartoon. It was about a wolf who wanted to eat the chickens but the rooster stood in the way. So the wolf started a whisper campaign.
“Did you hear that the rooster was a drunk?”
“Why should he get to be the boss? We know as much as he does.”
Once the wolf had the chickens doubting their leader, he then picked the dullest among them, Chicken Little, and convinced him the sky was falling. It was his duty, the wolf told him, to warn everyone else of the impeding catastrophe. Chicken Little did such a good job scaring everyone that pandemonium broke out. When the rooster tried to calm them down, the chickens ignored him.
“You old drunk, you can’t tell us what to do.”
Instead they followed Chicken Little out of the chicken coop to a cave where they would be safe from the falling sky. Of course, the cave was the wolf’s lair, and they became his lunch.
In school we learned to ask for the source of statements meant to make us angry or afraid. You say the rooster is a drunk. What is your proof he is a drunk? And if the rooster is a drunk, does that disqualify him from being a good leader? You say the rooster thinks he’s better than us. What makes you think the rooster thinks he’s better than us? You say the sky is falling? Can the sky actually fall? Take away the fear and anger and what do you have left?
Another propaganda tool is syllogism. That’s a big word meaning to take two true statements to create a third true statement. In other words, you say if A=B and B=C then A=C. Man is mortal. Mortals die. Therefore man dies. That sounds credible enough, and many arguments use that equation; but it isn’t always true.
For instance, in my novel Lincoln in the Basement, a befuddled janitor finds himself held under guard in the White House basement along with President Lincoln and his wife Mary. The janitor knows that he is in the basement. He hears conversations that lead him to believe the president is in the basement. Therefore, the janitor thinks he is the president. Oops. Wrong.
My wife and I have done what we could to teach our children to listen carefully and objectively. We pointed out television commercials for products that proclaimed to have 50 percent more. We asked our kids what the product had 50 percent more of. Fifty percent more than the product used to have? Fifty percent more than other products? Everybody likes this brand of toothpaste. Oh really? What independent survey organization decided that to be true?
Politicians say “they” are not like “us”. Who are “they”? Who are “us”? Do you identify more with the “they” group than the “us” group? Then “us” is not really us but “they”.
As you can see, propaganda is a tricky technique to persuade a person to think a certain way. In fact, I urge you to look up propaganda and decide for yourself what it is. Don’t take my word for it. After all, who am I to tell you how to raise your children? Don’t let me do that. And don’t let somebody on television selling soap or politicians do that either